Luke’s Tour Divide Day 4: Luke searches for meaning in Bigfork

Tuesday

Jun 18, 2013 at 12:01 AMJun 18, 2013 at 5:02 PM

Luke called this morning to give me an update and perhaps get some encouragement. It was time for him to get on his bike but he was having a little trouble getting motivated to get started. He had stayed overnight in Bigfork Montana which he said was supposed to be just a quarter mile off the route, he ended up rolling 2 miles downhill and was going to have to climb 2 miles this morning ot get back on the route. He said he looking forward to the seventh day when Tour Divide veterans have told him that all the pain and suffering will just fade into the background.

He has no specific pains or aches which is good, just a general ache and a fatigue setting in. It seems maintaining energy may be one of the biggest challenges

he’s facing. He told a story illustrating the problem.

Luke went to a subway one might after riding 130 miles and was waiting in line when he began to feel faint and sick. He went its the gas station Connected to the Subway and filled a cup with ice and tried to drink from the cup. the was unsure why no Soda was coming from the empty Cup So he started to leave. The cashier was yelling at him to come back and pay for the soda he replied, “what soda,” than saw the cup of ice in his hard and was like, “oh I forgot to fill the cup.” I told him he should think about maybe taking the effort down a notch.

apparently one rider got a bit off course, it wasn’t Luke.

From the way Luke describes his interaction with the others riding I’m reminded of a rolling brotherhood. No secret identification handshake is needed for this society, the heavily loaded bikes and dazed appearance on the riders face is all that is necessary to claim membership. Luke said, “All these people are batshit crazy.” And I’m thinking, you’re right there with them, in fact you’re in front of most of them.

Luke commented that if he doesn’t finish this year he’ll try again when he’s 50. He was amazed how many old guys there were out there in fact he said, “These 50 year old guys are insane, they never quit riding.”

Luke made a friend out there.

Luke commented on how useful the GPS was in navigating the route. This is very releaving to me because I helped him set the GPS with maps and routes and whatnot. I was pretty sure I did it right, but well… I didn’t want to be held liable if it navigated him off a cliff. After losing his GPS a couple of times during his pre Tour rides Coach Eli recommended tying the unit to the bike for extra insurance. After a long descent yesterday he looked down and saw his GPS was gone from its mount, but was luckily hanging from its string. THANKS COACH!

Matt Gholson

Luke called this morning to give me an update and perhaps get some encouragement. It was time for him to get on his bike but he was having a little trouble getting motivated to get started. He had stayed overnight in Bigfork Montana which he said was supposed to be just a quarter mile off the route, he ended up rolling 2 miles downhill and was going to have to climb 2 miles this morning ot get back on the route. He said he looking forward to the seventh day when Tour Divide veterans have told him that all the pain and suffering will just fade into the background.

He has no specific pains or aches which is good, just a general ache and a fatigue setting in. It seems maintaining energy may be one of the biggest challenges
he’s facing. He told a story illustrating the problem.

Luke went to a subway one might after riding 130 miles and was waiting in line when he began to feel faint and sick. He went its the gas station Connected to the Subway and filled a cup with ice and tried to drink from the cup. the was unsure why no Soda was coming from the empty Cup So he started to leave. The cashier was yelling at him to come back and pay for the soda he replied, “what soda,” than saw the cup of ice in his hard and was like, “oh I forgot to fill the cup.” I told him he should think about maybe taking the effort down a notch.

apparently one rider got a bit off course, it wasn’t Luke.

From the way Luke describes his interaction with the others riding I’m reminded of a rolling brotherhood. No secret identification handshake is needed for this society, the heavily loaded bikes and dazed appearance on the riders face is all that is necessary to claim membership. Luke said, “All these people are batshit crazy.” And I’m thinking, you’re right there with them, in fact you’re in front of most of them.

Luke commented that if he doesn’t finish this year he’ll try again when he’s 50. He was amazed how many old guys there were out there in fact he said, “These 50 year old guys are insane, they never quit riding.”

Luke made a friend out there.

Luke commented on how useful the GPS was in navigating the route. This is very releaving to me because I helped him set the GPS with maps and routes and whatnot. I was pretty sure I did it right, but well… I didn’t want to be held liable if it navigated him off a cliff. After losing his GPS a couple of times during his pre Tour rides Coach Eli recommended tying the unit to the bike for extra insurance. After a long descent yesterday he looked down and saw his GPS was gone from its mount, but was luckily hanging from its string. THANKS COACH!

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